Don’t let sexual offenders get their way

Three significant events occurred this past week and risked being buried under the increasingly raucous and acrimonious debate on runaway corruption.

Top on the list was First Lady Lucy Kibaki’s tongue-lashing of education stakeholders for failing — in more ways than one — to rein in child sex offenders.

A second was a Teachers Service Commission (TSC) exposÈ that 87.5 per cent of the complaints of sexual abuse of pupils by teachers forwarded to them were found guilty. On the same day, an investigation by The Standard unearthed shocking details of defilement at a school for deaf students and the not-so-bright attempt to cover it up.

And third was the bold OCPD in Mombasa who ordered the arrest of the entire workforce at a daycare centre after a 10-month-old child was defiled.

Now, an early 1990s Amnesty International report was spot on when it defined rape as "a crime of violence, aggression and domination, which affects women disproportionately."

However, this definition is today considered too narrow and has been broadened to include defilement, date rape, sodomy, incest, marital rape, and child molestation.

Another report goes on to say that in Kenya, rape is classified as an "Offence against Morality", and identifies three types — rape, defilement and incest — classified according to the age of the victim and relationship to the perpetrator. Under each type, therefore, different maximum sentences, have been recommended under the Penal Code.

And this is the sticking point since the public and even the victims themselves do not consider the sentences meted out to be deterrent enough. More often than not, wananchi opt for the law of the jungle and ‘administer’ instant justice.

Worst violation

Although this is clearly not the way of civility, it has offered a degree of gratification that drawn-out court proceedings deny traumatised families. Clearly, provisions in the Sexual Offences Act need bolstering to become more punitive considering that all studies describe this crime as the worst form of violation of another person’s dignity.

Coming from a continent wallowing in poverty and steeped in the morass of superstition, we all understand the stigma of rape survivors. Rape has become associated with ‘normal’ crime and was, for instance, widely deployed during the violent, post-election period of 2008. So cynical have sections of society become that even teachers who defile their charges are merely transferred or suffer a slap on the wrist through interdiction.

It was, therefore, with a sigh of relief that TSC put such molestors on notice and would ensure they are blacklisted from ever teaching again. Government could supplement this effort by starting a Name and Shame Sex Pests Register, like in the UK.

Our forefathers’ remedy of making sex pests into pariahs and expelling them from the community may have worked then. But we need a modern-day solution to an age-old affliction.

In this regard, widespread collaboration must be engendered involving media, State Law Office, Children’s Department, community-based organisations and the security services. All the while, the number of victims has been steadily increasing over the years. Statistics show an increase in reported rapes from 515 in 1990 and 1,675 in 2000 and more than 2,800 in 2004.

Today, there is one rape every half hour. Dr Sam Nthenya of Nairobi Women’s Hospital says about 15 rape victims come to his hospital daily, half of them are aged below 16 years.

Sufficient deterrents

Without belabouring the magnitude of the challenge and blight, institutions should be strengthened to be more vigilant and proactive to not only spot sexual abuse, but also take action immediately. These would include school counsellors, parents, the Provincial Administration, community leaders, health workers and police officers.

With the increased number of women MPs, we expect more lobbying and legislation to protect vulnerable groups like children and the disabled. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to borrow remedies from other countries, if they have proved sufficient deterrents.

The assault is made even more urgent by the dread of victims getting infected with HIV or other sexually-transmitted disease.